Background
Henry Smith Lane was born on a farm near Sharpsburg, Bath County, Kentucky, the son of James H. Lane, a colonel of militia and Indian fighter and Mary Higgins Lane.
(Originally published in 1866. 16 pages. This volume is pr...)
Originally published in 1866. 16 pages. This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
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(Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, in...)
Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, in the Senate of the United States, Thursday, February 8, 1866 Senator of the United States to speak to his fellow-senators and to the people of the United States. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Henry Smith Lane was born on a farm near Sharpsburg, Bath County, Kentucky, the son of James H. Lane, a colonel of militia and Indian fighter and Mary Higgins Lane.
He received a classical education from private tutors and studied law.
Lane was admitted to the bar in 1832 at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky. In 1834 he moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana, where he practiced his profession until he became a banker there, in 1854, with his father-in-law, Isaac C. Elston.
He was a Whig member of the state House of Representatives (1838 - 39) and took an active part in the campaign of 1840. Elected to the twenty-sixth federal House of Representatives to fill a vacancy caused by resignation and reëlected to the next Congress, he served from August 3, 1840, to March 3, 1843. When Tyler succeeded Harrison and vetoed bills to charter a new federal bank Lane, like most of his party, broke with the President and denounced him in bitter terms. He greatly admired Henry Clay and campaigned ardently for him in 1844; the defeat of his idol was one of the great disappointments of his life.
Unlike many northern Whigs he strongly supported the Mexican War, raised a company of volunteers, became its captain, and subsequently rose to be major and then lieutenant-colonel of the First Indiana Regiment. He went to Mexico but was mainly engaged in guarding supply trains and in garrison duty, and he did not participate in any battles.
After his return home he again ran for Congress but was defeated by one of the leading Indiana Democrats, Joseph E. McDonald. Early in his life, he recognized that slavery was out of harmony with the spirit of the age, but he opposed the methods of the active abolitionists. However, when the Republican party was founded upon the principle of opposition to slavery in the territories, he became one of its leaders in Indiana.
He presided over the national convention of 1856 and made an impassioned speech that gave him a national reputation. In 1859, holding that the election of Bright and Fitch in 1857 had been irregular, the Republicans and "Americans" or old Whigs, who now controlled both houses of the state legislature, chose Lane and Monroe McCarty for the United States Senate, but they were not allowed to take the seats because the Democratic majority in that body supported Bright and Fitch.
In the Republican National Convention of 1860 he energetically opposed the candidacy of Seward and played a large part in bringing about Lincoln's nomination. He was nominated for governor by the Indiana Republicans, with Oliver P. Morton as the candidate for lieutenant-governor. The two campaigned vigorously and were elected.
Two days after his inauguration, in accordance with a previous understanding, he was elected United States senator and resigned the governorship in favor of Morton. In the Senate he was a member of the committee on military affairs and of the committee on pensions, of which latter he became chairman.
He gave zealous support to the Union cause and, later, to the congressional plan of reconstruction, but he originated few measures and rarely spoke at any length, his talents "being better suited to the hustings than to a legislative body" (Woolen, post, p. 124). His influence was, however, much greater than the record of his activities in the Congressional Globe indicates. He declined to be a candidate for reëlection and upon the expiration of his term in 1867 returned to Crawfordsville to take up again his banking interests.
In 1869 he became special Indian commissioner and, in 1872, served as commissioner for the improvement of the Mississippi River. He was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1868 and 1872 and for many years a trustee of Asbury College (now De Pauw University). He was fond of telling how in the days of attending court in Fountain County before the war, he approached a group that included Abraham Lincoln. "Here, " said Lincoln, "comes an uglier man than I am. " As a stump speaker he had few equals, but his oratory was of the impassioned type, and he was not a logical speaker or a good debater. Unlike his fellow partisan, Oliver P. Morton, he made few enemies, being popular even with most of his political opponents.
(Originally published in 1866. 16 pages. This volume is pr...)
(Excerpt from Speech of Hon. Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, in...)
Lane was twice married, first, to Pamelia Bledsoe Jameson of Kentucky, who died in 1842, and, second, on February 11, 1845, to Jonna Elston, of Crawfordsville, a sister of the wife of Lew Wallace.